If you have WhatsApp installed on your phone, you should make sure you are updated to the latest version. Otherwise, you might be putting your phone at risk after discovering not one, but two zero-day bugs in the messaging app.
Reports have surfaced in recent days (via Naked Security (opens in new tab)) about the vulnerabilities. The good news is that WhatsApp has already identified and patched the bugs and sent updates to the appropriate app stores. But the fact that these were zero-day bugs means you need to double-check that your version of the app is up to date.
Put simply, a zero-day vulnerability is a vulnerability where hackers have an advantage – exploiting a vulnerability before the development team is aware of it. In other words, they had “zero days” to work on fixing a vulnerability before it was discovered by outside forces.
Other bugs are identified in other ways with no indication that they are known to anyone outside the company. Both are serious, but the zero-day bug is arguably the worst of the two, as it puts users at high risk from bad actors from the start.
In this case, both vulnerabilities allowed potential remote code execution. As Naked Security puts it, this could allow attackers to booby-trap data and force the app to crash. More experienced hackers could potentially exploit the circumstances of a crash to cause other types of unauthorized activity. Usually, this is malware or an attempt to take remote control of the affected device.
Error descriptions indicate that one of the errors required a call to establish a connection before it was triggered. The second seems like it could be triggered in other places you might be using WhatsApp.
If hackers can access your WhatsApp app, it means they can access all your private communications and contacts. This could easily be exploited for a variety of purposes, the least of which is selling the information to others.
Honestly, that doesn’t sound like much fun. Because of this, you should make sure WhatsApp is up to date. Naked Security notes that everything newer than Version 2.22.16.12on Android and iOS is safe from these two errors.
The Apple App Store currently offers a version 22.19.78 and google play has version 22.19.76. In short, both platforms appear to be way out of harm’s way – assuming you’re running the latest version of the software.
So be sure to go to your respective app store and make sure there are no pending updates. And if so, download them right away.
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